“Paul McCartney said Monday negotiations on a long-awaited deal to make the Beatles’ catalog available on the online music service iTunes have stalled,” Meera Selva reports for The Associated Press. “‘The last word I got back was it’s stalled at the whole moment, the whole process,’ the former Beatle said. ‘I really hope it will happen because I think it should.'”
Selva reports, “McCartney, who was speaking at the launch of his new album, Electric Arguments, added: ‘It’s between EMI and the Beatles, I think.'”
“The band’s holding company, Apple Corps Ltd., has so far declined to allow the Fab Four’s music on any Internet music service, including iTunes… Record label EMI, which owns the Beatles recordings but needs Apple Corps’ permission to release the music in new formats, said it was still trying to resolve the matter,” Selva reports.
Full article here.
Mike Collett-White reports for Reuters that a spokeswoman for EMI said, “‘We have been working hard to secure agreement with Apple Corps to make the Beatles’ legendary recording catalog available to fans in digital form,’ said. ‘Unfortunately, the various parties involved have been unable to reach agreement, but we really hope everyone can make progress soon.'”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Matt R.” and “Mrsteve1” for the heads up.]
Whatever. This is plainly a neverending story and it’s years beyond joke stage. At this point, whatever Beatles tracks that most people want have long been digitized and are already on their iPods. The only ones missing out are new fans who don’t know what BitTorrent is – in other words, not a huge audience.
Chalk it all up to yet another opportunity blown long ago by Apple Corps’ ridiculous viscosity.
By the way, “Paul McCartney yesterday said that he ‘doesn’t mind’ illegal downloading, though he does have some problems understanding the concept,” as Jonny Evans reports for Distorted-Loop here.